Nxera seeks schizophrenia programme buyer after Boehringer snub

Japan-based Nxera Pharma is seeking buyers for its Phase II-ready schizophrenia programme aft Boehringer Ingelheim decided not to workout a licensing option.

Boehringer Ingelheim, which held exclusive rights to licence the neurological upset portfolio of GPR52 agonists, did not supply further accusation to Nxera. Rights to the programme volition present revert to the Japanese biotech.

Nxera said it is present exploring strategical opportunities for the programme, including a licensing concern with a large pharmaceutical oregon specializer neuroscience institution successful 2026. Despite the hitch, Nxera said determination volition beryllium nary fiscal impact.

Investors were not impressed with the news. Shares successful Tokyo-listed Nxera slid 5% to Y817 ($5.19) astatine marketplace unfastened connected 19 December, compared to a marketplace adjacent of Y860 connected 18 December.

Boehringer gained its exclusive licensing enactment via a woody successful 2024 with Nxera, astatine the clip known arsenic Sosei Group Corporation pre-rebrand. Nxera received €25m upfront done the deal, but aboriginal payments upscaled the agreement. There was an enactment workout outgo of €60m, payments totalling up to €670m, and royalties for immoderate approved products.

Citi analysts commented that Boehringer’s shun was “negative” for Nxera, arsenic “there had been expectations for this large-scale woody successful 2025-2026”.

“If it tin licence the cause retired without a problem, determination should beryllium small interaction connected medium-term firm value,” the analysts added.

At the bosom of Nxera’s GPR52 agonist programme is its pb compound NXE0048149, which has already demonstrated affirmative Phase I results. Pharmacodynamic endpoints from the survey bespeak that the cause engages encephalon circuitry applicable to the attraction of schizophrenia and related disorders. There were nary terrible oregon superior adverse events successful the trial, showcasing the therapy’s promising safety. Nxera states that NXE0048149 is Phase II ready.

Nxera Pharma CEO Christopher Cargill commented: “Although we are disappointed that Boehringer Ingelheim has chosen not to proceed with the licence option, its determination does not diminish the important imaginable of the GPR52 agonist program, which has demonstrated highly encouraging attributes arsenic a first-in-class attack to treating respective large symptoms of schizophrenia and addressing the shortcomings of existent attraction options.

“We look guardant to updating the marketplace arsenic we beforehand discussions with imaginable partners adjacent year.”

Boehringer’s determination caps a hard mates of months for the biopharma. In November 2025, the institution laid retired plans to chopped 15% of its workforce and reprioritise its pipeline to prosecute profitability targets. The UK and Japan are location to astir of Nxera’s workforce, the full of which stood astatine 384 employees astatine the extremity of September.